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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Meeting a hero and then getting the chance to help

Mobiles for Meals

Last week at Britmums I had the absolute pleasure of first listening to and then meeting the wonderful Camilla Batmanghelidj from Kids Company.

Camilla - Mobiles for Meals

For a long time I've admired the work she does - providing practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children - children that everyone else has either forgotten about or written off.

And now I, and you, have the chance to help her - and it's so easy it's impossible not join in. Look who else has:

So what's it all about?

Today the first ever appeal to raise money to feed starving BRITISH kids is launched - as devastating new figures from Kids Company and Netmums reveal a million children are going hungry on British streets.

Some shocking statistics have been revealed, for example:

25 per cent of inner city schools said three quarters of all pupils are affected by lack of food

Children from food insecure homes are now missing almost half their weekly meals

On average, affected children eat just ten meals each week – 11 short of the 21 meals a week needed to stay healthy

Camila, Kids Company founder says, “We are seeing a lot more children struggling to get hold of food. We have kids who were so starving they stole frozen meat from a flat they visited and they ate it raw. We’re seeing effectively responsible parents who are just not managing to have food in the house."

“Children don’t have a public voice so they can’t tell us. We have a collective responsibility to make sure every child has enough to eat. This is something as a society we can solve if we want to and change children’s future for the better.”

Amy an older child who has, with help from Kids Company, grown up to a better life, recalls her childhood:

"I would wake up starving in the night but there would be no more food. When I went to people's houses their parents would make as much food as possible for me and more for me to take home. At my best friend's house I would fill up on dog biscuits in-between meals. I would wait at my garden fence and ask passers-by for sweets or food. I would even chip bits of brick off the wall and eat those."

So how can you and I help?

It's as simple as digging out an old mobile phone. Orange and T-Mobile are accepting any of your old handsets at 720
stores around UK or you can send it by FREEPOST to their national recycling centre.

Recycling a single mobile phone can provide a child with nutritious meals for a month.